Good Morning, Good Night
by Toothy Halcyon
Summary: Long distance relationships can be a real pain sometimes.


The moment Hong Kong caught sight of Iceland, his week got better. It improved a hundred times over in an instant. This week had not been a particularly terrible week, but there was the fact that there had been a lot of rushing to fill out papers and attending tiresome meetings, accompanied by the fact that there had been a lot of weeks like these as of late. He hadn't gotten back home from work till late last night and then went straight to bed, without taking a single moment for himself. He was just waking up in the morning now, and it was finally the weekend for him, and although he was still tired and hungry from the previous night, he wanted to talk to Iceland before he got around to anything else. He had to have something aside from food he got through the day for, right?

Iceland's face lit up with a matching weary smile when Hong Kong sat down before him and from that alone, Hong Kong could tell that he was tired too. There were also the dark shadows beneath his eyes. Apparently, his boss had been running him ragged lately too, and seeing him so run down but still so eager to see him and talk to him, if only for a few minutes, Hong Kong wanted nothing more than to reach out and cuddle his boyfriend. However, he restrained himself. For now, they could talk.

"Hey, Ice," Hong Kong greeted, giving him a shade of the playful smirk he sometimes wore when they were together, "how was your day? Did you miss me? I bet you did."

The Nordic gave up a laugh without a fight, too braindead to combat his boyfriend's cockiness. "You know what my days have been like lately," Iceland shrugged. "Everyone's so busy right now. Um." Iceland smiled sheepishly. "I was even yelled at today by my boss for dropping a bunch of papers on the floor."

Instantly, Hong Kong went on alert. "Yelled at you?" he echoed, frowning.

"Yeah," he murmured. "It was a bunch of documents that took forever to organize and I dropped them because I was walking around half asleep. I suppose I deserved it."

"What? No. Screw that, Ice," Hong Kong snapped, leaning forward. "I don't want anybody yelling at you. I'll kick their ass if they think they can. It's their fault if you're so tired anyway."

"Hong Kong," Iceland sighed, "please do not kick my boss's ass if you see him. That would probably just make things worse."

Hong Kong let out a dismissive huff and plopped his head down on the desk. He hated this. He hated anyone who picked on Iceland; his siblings, Iceland's, Iceland's boss, whoever. Only Hong Kong was allowed to pick on him, and that was only ever in good fun because undeniably, that boy was cute as a button when he got embarrassed. It was just stupid that they always had to be so far apart when they needed each other. "Well, remember to take care of yourself then," Hong kong grumbled, pointing at Iceland. "I know you're totally helpless without me but you still have to remember to eat and sleep and stuff."

Iceland snorted indignantly. "I'm helpless?" he asked. "Hong Kong, just look at your house." He gestured forward at the piles of dishes with mostly eaten meals, boxes of snack foods, and various items of clothing strewn around. And that was only the living room. "Three weeks and it's already a giant mess again."

"Hmph." Hong Kong sat up straight again and scooted to the side to block part of the Nordic's view of his house. "At least my bad habits won't ever make me collapse for exhaustion fromwhatever," he pouted.

"Oh, I don't know," Iceland said, smiling slyly. "I'd say those rotting pork buns look kind of hazardous."

"Ice," he snorted, grinning back, "you're really cute when you try to be funny. You should try that more often." They both had a small laugh then, but once Hong Kong stopped, he looked at Iceland with a more solemn look in his eyes. "Seriously though," he murmured, grabbing Iceland's attention, "take care of yourself, alright? Because, well, I get worried about you, living all alone out there in that house of yours. You're like, really far away from other people." Glancing aside and feeling awkward over the sentimentality, he finished, "So, just like...take care. And even if he is an ass, call Norway if you start to feel sick again and make him take care of you, because I don't want you getting the flu again or anything."

He felt a bit stupid and uncertain saying mushy stuff like that, even after all the time they'd been together. Before meeting Iceland, Hong Kong had spent years as a snarky brat, just blowing stuff up with fireworks and making fun of people behind their backs. It wasn't like him to get so close to his emotions. However, it was still an effective way of getting Iceland to take him seriously, and that was worth it. "Alright, Hong Kong. I'll take care," Iceland promised. "It'd be nice to be in good health the next time I see you anyway."

"Of course. You'd better be," Hong Kong said, glad to be changing his tone back to normal. "I have big plans for us, next time you're here."

Iceland sighed and hung his head. The low light shone off his silver hair, making it seem incredibly silky and appealing. Hong Kong wished very badly that he could reach out and pet it. Just pet his pretty head and make all his troubles go away. "You know," Iceland began, "you always say you have big plans, but all we ever do at your place is sit around, eat, and play video games."

"Well, duh. Those _are _the big plans," the Asian said. He gave Iceland a playful wink and added, "And we fool around in bed. Wouldn't want to forget about that, Ice."

The flustered blush that crept onto Iceland's face at that and the awkward glance aside were enough to make this whole conversation worthwhile, in Hong Kong's mind. As if it didn't have enough merit as it was. "Yeah, well..." Iceland mumbled. And that was all he had to say on the matter.

For a moment, the pair sat in silence, soaking in the odd mix of awkwardness and comfort they always found in each other's presence. By then, Hong Kong and Iceland had been together for a couple of years and were at a point when they just knew each other very well. They always knew what to say to make the other smile or hilariously uncomfortable in the middle of a world meeting. And when they were upset, they always knew whether to comfort them with their words and push the blame onto some idiot or just hold them until until they felt better. Their relationship was teenaged puppy love, both in the eyes of the people who didn't know just what they were and their elders, some of whom had been in love for centuries, but that didn't meant that their own affections for each other were any less than what anyone else felt.

It was Iceland who broke the silence between them. Iceland, picking his head up, looking into Hong Kong's with longing, and letting out a sigh. "I miss you," he said quietly, suddenly looking more run down than ever. His tired voice was enough to send a painful prick of emotion into Hong Kong's heart, which was usually guarded by a ten foot wall of snark and killer pandas but had its gates pushed open by a puffin wearing a little watchman's uniform whenever he was around the Nordic. "I want to see you again," Iceland said, further catching Hong Kong off guard. "Soon." It wasn't like him to make the first move, so Hong Kong was quick to respond.

"I miss you too," he replied, "and yeah, you need to get back over here. Tell me when your vacation days are coming."

"Hong Kong, you know when my vacation is," Iceland said. "I've been telling you every day for three weeks."

"Please, Iceland?" Hong Kong whined, pouting out his lip at his boyfriend. "_Please?_ I'm a dying man here. Throw me a rope, would you?" He then proceeded to bang his head on the desk and flail around in his seat until Iceland was forced to give in. This was just one of Hong Kong's many getting-his-way techniques.

"One week," Iceland told him, resting his head in his palm. "I basically work straight for four weeks and then I get two weeks off."

"And when you do, you're coming right over here," Hong Kong insisted, snapping his head up and grinning. "You promised you would. You're coming to my house as soon as your vacation starts and spending the whole time there."

"Yeah, I know." Iceland let out a huge yawn and nodded sleepily.

"I'll cook you a big meal when you get here. Or we can go out to eat. Whatever you want."

"Sounds good, Hong Kong." He decided to close his eyes for just a moment.

"And I'm making you stay up late the first night, no objections. We can watch some bad TV or play MarioKart or something else easy."

"That's nice."

"And then we can do freaky stuff in bed. I've got this collar and leash I've been wanting you to try on."

"Mm-hm."

Hong Kong smiled gently and stared at Iceland, his heart swelling with affection. He was just way too cute right now. His boyfriend was nearly asleep, his head in danger of falling from his palm at any moment. He couldn't be listening to more than half of what Hong Kong was saying, otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to that last one. It'd really only been a bit of fun on his part anyway, since he'd picked up on the Nordic's exhaustion.

Of course, it made sense that Iceland would be so much more tired. It was still two in the morning for him. He was only awake now because Hong Kong had missed talking to him yesterday.

"Hey. Ice." Hong Kong rapped his knuckles on the desk a few times in order to get his attention. Slowly, the Nordic lifted his head again and looked at him with bleary, violet eyes. "Hey," he repeated, "get to bed soon, okay?"

Iceland blinked sleepily a few times and then nodded. "Alright, Hong Kong," he agreed. "I'll be there soon."

"Good boy," he nodded. "But, like, hold on a sec before you go up. You've gotta do something for me first."

"This isn't going to be a request for another strip show, is it?" Iceland asked, skeptical, even in his half-sleep. He'd gotten at least one per week, and he wasn't even sure if Hong Kong was joking about them or not.

"No, don't worry," Hong Kong assured him with a small laugh. It felt like another silly thing to say, but he went for it anyway. He really missed Iceland, after all. "Just, like...do what I do, okay? It'll be nice." With that, Hong Kong slowly reached up and pressed his hand against the screen of his computer, annoying smudges be damned. And as he did, Iceland matched his gesture, pressing against his own laptop's screen. The two of them held their hands like so and closed their eyes.

And for a moment, they could almost feel the touch of the other, as if a computer screen and webcam really were the only things keeping them apart, instead of 6,000 miles of distance in between.

"Good morning, Hong Kong," Iceland said once they pulled apart.

"Good night, Iceland," Hong Kong said. "See you tonight."

They stared at each other for another moment more and then simultaneously closed their chat windows, that added separation tearing at something inside of them, in some small way. It was going to be a long, long week.


End file.
